The daughter of the centre's supervisor had been on the floor with the children and was seen "stopping" a 4-year-old boy from hitting another child by putting her hand on his arm, she said.

However, she did not see the incident, so could not be sure.

The woman was spoken to by the ministry staff member, asked to leave, and told not to come back again.

The centre had assured the ministry such an incident would not happen again.

"It was unlucky that ministry were here on the day," Mrs Leaupepe said. "Of all of the days she had to come in and do something like that. It does not put us in a good light."

The centre had a no-hitting policy, but staff usually told children verbally to stop if they were found to be "rough-playing".

There were 25 children enrolled at the centre, which had four registered and qualified teachers and one awaiting training, she said.

An Education Review Office report in March said A'oga Amata Miramar Inc "is not well placed to promote positive outcomes for children" after areas for improvement identified in 2009 had not been dealt with.

Although there were some good systems and processes in place, a lack of positive communication and cohesion between the management committee and teachers was evident, it said.

The ministry was aware of other issues identified in the ERO report, and it was now working to support the centre with additional help.